[ExI] a cryonics take on: RE: Inheritance

[spike]

Skip to last paragraph if you are short of time or humor:

 

>…] On Behalf Of Dave Sill
Subject: Re: [ExI] Inheritance

 


Actually, a libertarian argument could be made for inheritance tax or
other forms, preferably free market, of redistribution of the wealth of
the deceased….  Someone write, possibly Stuart

 

>…Property ownership "forever" is absurd. Property (land) ownership at all is "quite unnatural". I'm not sure how you can prevent a parent from giving something to a child. And under the default American rules, property is divided among all of the heirs, so if you continue that "forever", the heirs will be inheriting microscopic parcels.  -Dave 

 

The notion of microscopic parcels is intriguing if we can find a way to make it happen.  

 

I am a co-owner of a parcel in West Virginia with approximately 130 relatives, bequeathed to us (his descendants) by our great great grandfather in 1910.  The state of West Virginia doesn’t care how many owners, so long as the taxes are paid.  My share is $2.30 a year, which is annoying, since the cost of the postage is a nearly 20% of the tax, and they don’t let us pay ahead.  

 

The way the will was written, any of his descendants can apply for a share of ownership of that (useless) parcel.  Can it be a thousand people?  A million?  We would do the taxes by PayPal, fractions of a cent?  Perhaps the state arbitrarily set one dollar a year as a minimum property tax, then sit back and rake in the dough.  The state of West Virginia has honored that will for over 100 yrs.

 

Two TV shows I found quite entertaining deals with Britain’s take on inheritance.  The Brits live quite well, as shown in Jeeves&Wooster, and in Downton Abbey.  

 

For instance, this is BillK’s house:

 



 

…or one of them, perhaps his summer cottage, or a guest house adjoining the main residence.  

 

The owner of the estate in 1820 (Mr. Darcy) willed it to one of his direct male descendants, which led to the kind of silliness such as the puzzling fact that to this day no one actually knows the first name of Mr. Darcy, even his many servants and classmates in first grade.  They always just called him Mister, or as is the playground custom, shortened it to Mist.  Bullies would further shorten it to Mis, which then led to the customary friendly playground fist fights we boys know so well, the kind which seldom led to anything more serious than a knocked-out tooth or destroyed an eye (but not the spare.)

 

The home belonged to the Crawley family Sir Watkyn Bassett but passed to the Crawley family after Sir Watkyn had only the airhead daughter Madeline and no sons, but soon came into the possession of BillK after Lord Grantham failed to produce male heirs.  It didn’t matter that his oldest daughter Mary is a stunning beauty.  So BillK’s grandparents ended up there, after having inherited it from Max More’s great grandparents.

 

Enough fun and games.

 

If we don’t work out all the details on inheritance, it has a big impact on our fondest notions of cryonics.  If inheritance law is weakened we run the risk of the cryonauts’ stored (somehow) fortunes being taxed away.  Future generations are unlikely to bother uploading the brain of a pauper, but rather they might treat them the way we treat paupers today: toss them in the trash.

 

spike

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